I have a friend who works at the library. Someone had used a lottery ticket as a bookmark in a book they returned. Whomever had found it had already checked in the book, so the person's name was unattainable.

Now, this lottery ticket was for THAT night's lottery.

The ticket sat around on the countertop, where many librarians, pages, and volunteers go by. At the end of the night, it was still sitting on the counter, so my friend decided to take the ticket home.

Her ethical dilemma: what if the lottery ticket was a big winner? [Note: By big winner, she means one that is large, but not large enough to pay to do an LLC.]

What should she do? Should she wait a few months to see if anyone comes to the library claiming it before claiming it herself? Should she claim it immediately herself, since it's "finders keepers"? But what if a patron came in afterwards, claiming it was their ticket (they play the same numbers every time) - they could possibly sue her for the money. Yet... how would she know if that person wasn't set up by someone else from the library who had seen the ticket and knew it's circumstances?

This is now inconsequential as the lottery ticket didn't even win $1. However, she wanted me to post this on Lottery Post because she wanted to know your viewpoints.

I have a friend who works at the library. Someone had used a lottery ticket as a bookmark in a book they returned. Whomever had found it had already checked in the book, so the person's name was unattainable.

Now, this lottery ticket was for THAT night's lottery.

The ticket sat around on the countertop, where many librarians, pages, and volunteers go by. At the end of the night, it was still sitting on the counter, so my friend decided to take the ticket home.

Her ethical dilemma: what if the lottery ticket was a big winner? [Note: By big winner, she means one that is large, but not large enough to pay to do an LLC.]

What should she do? Should she wait a few months to see if anyone comes to the library claiming it before claiming it herself? Should she claim it immediately herself, since it's "finders keepers"? But what if a patron came in afterwards, claiming it was their ticket (they play the same numbers every time) - they could possibly sue her for the money. Yet... how would she know if that person wasn't set up by someone else from the library who had seen the ticket and knew it's circumstances?

This is now inconsequential as the lottery ticket didn't even win $1. However, she wanted me to post this on Lottery Post because she wanted to know your viewpoints.

Finder Keepers is a Childhood Myth: In the adult world: Lost things of value are returned to their owners!

In cases like this: Follow the Golden Rule: If you lost something of value: You'd want the finder to return the item to you.

PS: In Modern Libraries: The librarian can pull up the Title of a Book and tell who checked out the book.

A mind once stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions!

It's a little bit different than finding a Twenty dollar bill book mark because somebody knows they bought the ticket and where. I'd give them a month to come back and claim the ticket but I wouldn't put up a "Found lottery ticket used as bookmark" message on the Library bulletin board.

If it was a big winner, I'd def try and track down the rightfull owner. You have to think about this for a second. What if it was a big winner and someone else claimed it? Then that person would always have to remember that at any given time, the rightfull owner could come looking for that winning ticket. It opens a whole can or worms down the road, like lawsuits, hatred, etc.

Who knows, the rightfull owner could end up rewarding the finder if they are honest.

I don't believe that Finders Keepers is a widely recognized legal concept.

I'd find a lawyer. Hopefully you could tell the lottery commission you found it and they could look for the owner. They know where the ticket was purchased and what day and time, so if someone came forward knowing that info, along with the title of the book it was found in, they're probably the rightful owner. I'd use a lawyer because if no one did come forward, I'd want an agreement in place that ownership was transferred to me as the Finder before the time to claim the ticket had expired.